Man pays off mortgage with pennies

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MILFORD, Mass., July 6 (UPI) -- A Massachusetts man said he collected pennies for 35 years so he could make his final mortgage payment with 62,000 of the coins.

Thomas Daigle said he decided to make the final payment "memorable" when he and his wife, Sandra, moved into their Milford home in 1977 and purchased it with a mortgage from Milford Federal, The Milford Daily News reported Friday.

"It was something I wanted to do," Daigle said. "I always follow through."

"I was just praying I didn't die first," he said.

Daigle said he collected an average of 2.5 pennies per day and at first he kept them in a grape crate, but he had to move the change to a pair of steel military rocket launcher ammo boxes when the wood of the crate began to break under the weight of the coins.

Daigle, who delivered the pennies April 24, the same day as his 35th wedding anniversary, said he gave Milford Federal notice that his final payment was going to be in penny form.

"They were 100 percent for it," he said.